The Whitehall-Coplay School District issued a news release Tuesday, saying it received "reliable information" that its teachers union was planning to take a vote this week authorizing a strike.

But the district's source is wrong, according to Whitehall-Coplay Education Association President Joe Krempasky, who said the union has no plans to take a strike vote Thursday, as the district said, or any time soon.

"There's all kinds of rumors," Krempasky said Tuesday. "Each side is trying to blame the other."

The two sides have been negotiating since January, but tensions have risen since the latest contract expired Sept. 2.

More than 100 teachers, wearing yellow T-shirts that said "Fair Contract Now" on the front, flooded a recent school board meeting. Teachers also walked along district property Friday before the high school football game.

The news release, which was also posted on the district's website, comes as the district seeks to bring the impasse to a fact-finder.

The next bargaining session is planned for Tuesday. But the district's statement said officials believe the teachers want to take a strike vote before an Oct. 16 meeting of the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board in an effort to block a review by a fact-finder.

"We got the information from a good source," said the district's chief negotiator, Jeff Sultanik.

Krempasky said the union will wait to see what happens Tuesday before agreeing to a fact-finder.

If both sides agree to what the fact-finder's report says, it becomes the basis for a contract. Two of the last three contract talks in Whitehall-Coplay have had fact-finders.

The district is proposing a fixed raise for each teacher: $1,000 in 2014-15, $1,100 in 2015-16 and $1,200 in 2016-17.

The union proposed a three-year deal with 2.75 percent raises each year and increases for continuing education credits and longevity, which district solicitor Sultanik said is "unrealistic."

Teachers have taken salary freezes in previous years. The current starting salary in Whitehall-Coplay is $41,907.

The union's proposal, which would increase the district's payroll by 5 percent each year, is too costly, according to the district.

Additionally, the board wants the teachers to take on more medical costs, including a higher premium payment and a higher co-pay/deductible, he said. The teachers would like their medical benefits to remain as they have been.

About 280 teachers work in the district, which has five schools.

Whitehall-Coplay teachers are not the only Lehigh Valley educators battling for a contract. Saucon Valley teachers and the district have been in a contract impasse for nearly three years. The threat of a strike looms there.

Parkland and Saucon Valley are the only Lehigh Valley school districts that have had strikes in recent years.